Morality
Note that the following is taken directly from the words of Jimmy Rome, and is not phrased in an in-universe manner. In the sense that good and evil are actual forces that have metaphysical weight and conflict with each other there is no good or evil in Tattered Realms. One of the things we tried to do in the setting was create a universe with elements of lovecraftian horror, but one that also addresses the concept of divinity, and whether that is, in and of itself, a form of proto-lovecraftian horror. The Abrahamic God of Abraham and Moses was a scary, abstract being whose will was never elucidated beyond the immediate moment of his command. He is expressly too disturbing for human beings to look upon, He works through intermediaries who are themselves, despite being designed for the purpose of communicating with mortals, still immensely inhuman and distressing to look upon. People are driven into such awe that they would kill their own children rather than disobey them. Water turns into blood at their mild irritation. Millions die when disobedience reaches their attention. The concepts of good and evil are human. The idea that there is a struggle with sides, and that one side is good, useful, true, loving, ideal, and the other side is evil, wicked, cruel, useless, and false. To God in this mode, this concept is preposterous. A struggle implies a contest. Sides imply that all things are not merely extensions of the divine will. Utility implies objective. All of these things are fabrications, a projection of the human struggle to survive on the universe. THIS is the delusion that mankind holds that, when faced with divine truth, crumbles, and leaves a sense of cold dread. This IS lovecraftian horror, but at the same time, the realization and acceptance of this through faith is different from the existential dread that a 19th century rationalist feels in the face of it. A land surveyor shrieks in fear at the colour out of space--a medieval man just gets out of the way. Now, imagine a world of Lovecraftian horror, in which everyone already knows that Cthulhu is real. Everyone already knows that Yog-Sothoth is out there in space. This is normal. This is how things were meant to be. They've accepted it because it's all they could do. A great demon so powerful that its existence literally illuminates the planet whenever it is present owns half of humanity. Owns them as surely as if they were cattle branded in the yard. It does not beat around the bush at all — they are slaves. Their existence now is nothing more than training for an eternity of servitude, and they are expected to be grateful, because this is so, so much more than they deserve. This is normal. Nobody has a problem with this. This is the world that you have to live in now. And what's more, this demon — it isn't on the top of the ladder. It's said so. Everyone knows it. It is a slave of something else. How quickly could the divine order of things shatter? What if He comes back? What if He isn't even on top of the ladder himself? What if He steps on the Ziggurat, and erases not only your soul, but every trace that humanity ever existed, material, metaphysical, even the memory of you in the capricious mind of your God? What if the entire divine destiny of the human race, the sum-total of all human endeavor in this life and the next, is just a sand castle built by a bored child? What happens when the child's parents take him home? You are suspended over nonexistence only by the attention of this being. You may only BE the attention of this being, and now it's going for ice cream, and has better things to do than to sustain you. So, what about good and evil? Category:Science & Culture